4 ADMIT ROLES IN COCAINE PIPELINE

Authorities Say They Brought Hundreds Of Kilograms Of Cocaine Into The
Roanoke Area.

Four men who participated in a cocaine pipeline from New York City to
Roanoke that was linked to corruption on the Roanoke police force pleaded
guilty in federal court Tuesday.

Two of the main local dealers, Robert Tyrone Adams and Troy Duane
Sergenton, turned around and testified against Adrian Patrick, a New York
man who federal authorities argued supplied Roanoke with hundreds of
kilograms of cocaine since 1993.

Christopher "Chuckles" Hodges, 28, and Rodney Eugene Shell, 26, both of
Roanoke, also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy.

Patrick, who went by the street name Age, controlled his underlings and was
not above coming down from New York to Roanoke when drug deals went awry,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant argued in his opening statement.

Patrick's New York attorney, Harvey Slovis, argued that no evidence tied
Patrick to the drugs. He pointed out that federal authorities had first
thought Sergenton was Age.

Slovis also said his client's trial was the last in a case that began with
an investigation into corruption in the Roanoke Police Department and
yielded the cocaine conspiracy charges against the defendants who pleaded
guilty.

Slovis also tied Adams to the police corruption in his opening argument.

"He had the power to buy off your police department, to corrupt three
honorable men," Slovis argued, without elaborating on who the officers were.

Adams, 30, once referred to certain unnamed police officers as his "knights
in shining armor," according to the indictment. Tuesday in court, however,
Adams denied ever saying that. He did admit that he rode motorcycles with
former Roanoke police Officer Frederick Pledge, who recently was sentenced
to eight years in prison for shaking down drug dealers for money in
exchange for not arresting them.

Adams also said he socialized with Levert Jackson, another former Roanoke
police officer, and testified that he assumed Pledge and Jackson knew he
was a drug dealer.

Another defendant, Roderick "Giz" Perrineau, who federal authorities argued
was a link between Patrick and the dealers in Roanoke, remains at large.

At the center of the trial is the cocaine that made its way from the
streets of the Bronx and Spanish Harlem to apartments on Eastern and
Colonial avenues in Roanoke.

Sergenton, 28, of High Point, N.C., testified that Patrick, whom he knew as
Age, set him and Perrineau up in an apartment on Eastern Avenue. They would
make regular trips to New York to get drugs. Back in Roanoke, Sergenton
would cook the powder into crack at the apartment and sell it on the
streets. Adams testified that he probably had brought between 150 and 200
kilograms of cocaine into the Roanoke area.

Sergenton also testified that once at the apartment , four men broke in
looking for his cocaine. Sergenton grabbed a handgun, which he said he
didn't own, and fired at the men, who fired back.

Sergenton also testified that the Roanoke police officers who were called
to the scene never charged anyone in the gunfight. He did not identify the
officers.

Slovis pressed both Sergenton and Adams on whether they were testifying
against Patrick just to get lighter sentences .

"Sergenton saves his life by cooperating with the government," Slovis
argued. He pointed out in Sergenton's plea agreement that the prosecution
had agreed to recommend he be sentenced to probation for cooperating with
the government. The mandatory minimum would have been 10 years otherwise,
Slovis said.

Patrick's trial continues today.